Fun Fun Fun Fest Live Shot: King Khan & the Shrines

Berlin crazies deliver revue-brand mania

Fun Fun Fun Fest Live Shot: King Khan & the Shrines
by John Leach

Doesn’t matter how beat you be, how weary your heart. When King Khan & the Shrines come out busting “(How Can I Keep You) Outta Harm's Way,” and the chieftain removes his robe to reveal the most robust belly this side of Fucked Up’s Damian Abraham, you just gotta go for it. King Khan, baby. Closing out hot.

The Berlin-based tenpiece saddled up to their headlining set nearly 20 minutes late, dropping some revue-brand soul before introducing the inimitable Arish Ahmad “King” Khan, who emerged wearing a robe, Egyptian Afro wig, and, we’d soon learn, little else.

“Are we gonna have a freak-out?” he asked.

Hell yes. Full-on. Band keyboards got upended a minute later.

The Shrines, draped all in black and unrivaled in their ability to outperform even their chaotic bandleader, shook, twisted, turned, and dropped to their knees while their sovereign led a boogie-down crowd through “Took My Lady to Dinner,” “Bite My Tongue,” and “I Wanna Be a Girl,” adding two tributes to Lou Reed and one “to all the transvestites and transexuals out there.”

Crowd members started stage diving after that, falling gracefully into waiting arms rather than belly flopping into the aggressive pit the Black stage saw all weekend. At one point, a woman jumped up alongside Khan twice and just shimmied and threw her hands around before security forced her off. Khan and his cronies never seemed to mind.

They’d been chugging through “Destroyer” and “Stone Soup” the whole time, rewarding whoever ventured to the furthest corners of Auditorium Shores to live their last minutes of the FFF weekend like a maniac.


For more Fun Fun Fun Fest coverage, see www.austinchronicle.com/fun-fun-fun-fest. For photo galleries from the fest, see austinchronicle.com/photos.

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KEYWORDS FOR THIS POST

Fun Fun Fun Fest, King Khan & the Shrines, Fun Fun Fun Fest 2013, Arish Ahmad Khan, Damian Abraham, Fucked Up

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